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Thursday, May 25, 2017

The DOE And UFT Are Secretly Negotiating A New ATR Agreement- Without ATR Participation.

Once again, the DOE and UFt are secretly negotiating a new ATR agreement without ATR representation. While the negotiations are secret, there are leaks and here are some of the broad details of the new agreement.

First, and foremost. ATRs will be assigned to one school for the 2017-18 school year. This will be a "forced placement" as the ATR has no say on the placement, which will be based on available vacancies of the assigned school in the ATR's content specialty.

Second, the formal observation will be made by the assigned school but informal observations will be done by field supervisors who will have input into the final grade.

Third, ATRs will no longer be subject to the more lenient "S" and "U" grading system but be evaluated under Danielson and the new teachers evaluation system.

Finally, Appointed ATRs will be free the first year and reduced cost for the next few years after. However, the actual reductions have not been leaked out yet. I must note this incentive is similar to the failed incentive of this school year. What makes the DOE and UFT believe it will work any better next year is beyond me.

My understanding of how the new ATR agreement will work is that most of the ATRs will be placed in Renewal or academically struggling schools where high teacher turnover, poor administration, and a high poverty student body with many "high needs" students are common. Since these are the schools that tend to have vacancies at the start of the school year. Furthermore, there is no "mutual consent" for the placement by the ATR, look for many of the placements to be in undesirable schools or hard to get to locations.

In some cases, ATRs with few openings in their content specialty, like music or shop teachers will still be used as coverage teachers in schools that have such programs but no vacancies.

Please note, since the negotiations have not been completed, some of the above information may change in the final ATR agreement.

40 comments:

Anonymous
said...

It's already done. Signed, sealed and delivered the first week of April - it's only the minor details that are being toyed with to streamline the termination process. Wait until the deformer groups find out that the DOE/UFT are going to send the ATRs to inner city renewal schools! They won't release the info until the school year is over. They don't want the ATRs screaming, the parent groups protesting or media coverage on this. I think Eva should be informed; she may end up helping us more than Mulgrew.

Mulgrew, deBlasio and Grandma should tread carefully. Many of us have copious notes and recordings of what's going on the schools we have been rotated to. I've been in 82 high schools and I have disturbing details on each and every one.

I have emailed Amy, Mulgrew and others several times, all i get is that there is no agreement. I asked about us getting to list 6 schools, or list any number and get placed in on of those, i get silence. I also brought up travel issues, times, etc and got no response. So now we get screwed by a principal and field supe? Typical. But i should keep paying dues upon Janus? No thanks.

Although I am not an ATR, I find the fact that ATR"s will have two different people observing them very interesting. NYS law says that all teachers must have one observation done by the principal and one by an "outside evaluator". If ATR's are are going to be observed by 2 different people, me thinks that it might be a tip that all NYC teachers will in fact be getting observed by their principal as well as an outside evaluator. NYC applied for a waiver to NYSED to avoid having to use outside evaluators. Does anybody know if our evaluation system/waiver was in fact approved by NSED back at Christmas time? (We know the UFT and DOE agreed to it but I am not aware if the state has actually approved it yet) Chime in please!!!

Sounds illegal to have 2 sets of supervisors- why are atr supervisors needed if Atr's get observed by principals - they need to keep these vile rabid scumbag slugs on payroll ? Sounds against the contract to me

Yes this is my point exactly! If ATRs are allowed to be treated unfairly "outside evaluators" we can expect this to trickle down to the rank and file! We should all be united on ATR rights! This protects us all! How can the UFT have talks without ATR input? ATRs have fought to be represented and the UFT have not listened. UFT is drowning in confusion! They are shooiting themselves in the foot!

You heard it here on this fine Friday. This has been the plan all along. Harass veteran staff out of these $hithole schools, get many to leave the system and the rest will simply be thrown in the ATR pool. Now they will force place all ATRS in these positions in failing/renewal gotcha schools and allow the principals to rate them ineffective two years in a row which will guarantee a 3020a and SURE firing. If anyone doubts this is their strategy, I then feel bad for you. ATRS "can't" be effective in these schools especially now that their rating is tied to Danielson and student test scores. I hope I am wrong, but sure think this is their plan.

ATRs are in for another setup to have principals do the ratings. If a deal is being made, it needs to come with training because as we all know ATRs are not treated the same as regular staff. We all need to start organizing for age discrimination and demotion. Whatever happened to Mr. Suker's lawsuit? It was mentioned in the NY Post that Mr. Suker's attorney referred to the label of ATR as being a stigma. Hope everyone is writing anecdotals. May need to organize.

Suker's lawsuit was tossed by a judge. Judicial system is rigged. Judges almost always state " well why doesn't the UFT protect its members." The UFT is the x factor causing all this damage. Without a doubt, the UFT is on team DOE. It's sad that the cat is out of the bag, but since these under the table deals are still in motion, UFT can't back out now. SCUMMMMMM!

The buyout shows that everything that these ATR field supervisors told us it was a lie. They told us they are here to help us find a job when their main purpose was to rate us U. Once more our UFT agreed to have ATRs observed in classes out of license, and with students they met for the first time. The observation process is set up in a an arbitrary and capricious way to target ATRs.